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ly-Tifp) Historical Discourse, 



DELIVERED AT THE 



WHITESTOWN 



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JUnSTE 5, lS84r. 

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— 1!Y 

CHARLES TRACY 



T;TIC.^ N. Y. 

il.I.IS U. lioUKKTs & Co., liOOK AND Jon PlUNTl.Hs, (it) UknKsSKK St. 



"WTenox. 




Class _ 
Book. 



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Historical Discourse, 



DELIVERED AT THE 



WHITESTOWN 



CEpNNIjiL CELEBpOti, 



JTU^STE 5, 1884^. 



BY — 



CHARLES TRACY. 



UTICA, N. T, 
Ellis H. Roberts & Co., Book and Job Printers, 60 Genesee St. 

1885. ^,. 






In ExoH \ 

N.Y. Pub. Lib, 



HISTORICAL ADDRESS. 



BY CHARLES TRACY. 



A hundred years ! How such a period marks the eartli and its 
people with changes. It sweeps away three generations, and 
hardly does one man who breathed at the beginning of the grand 
oycle live five score years and watch its ending. 

On a bright day in June, 1784, Hugh White, ascending the 
Mohawk river in a boat, reached the mouth of the Sadaqueda 
Creek and there landed, at the spot since known as the I'oint. 
With some of his sturdy sons he stepped into the vast forest 
stretching north, west and south to the bounds of the 
♦State of New York, unbroken by any civilized settlement, 
without a natural prairie, and hardly opened to the sun 
except by a few scattered patches of Indian clearings. But 
they came to stay, and did stay. The fourth, filth and sixth 
generations of his line witness to-day the centennial of tliat land- 
ing and the due lionors rendered to those whose dust rests in peace 
in the fair land they won and reclaimed and beautified. 

This hundred of years includes three-eighths of the whole period 
from the first landing of English emigrants on the American coast 
down to the present day. 

The bold settlement of ^^anhattan Island by the Hollanders, 
and the establishment of their colonies along the Hudson and a 
part of the Mohawk, attracted emigrants from their own country 
and from Germany, before the British succeeded to the govern- 
ment ; but after the Dutch colony of New Amsterdam had become 
the English province of Xew York, the difference of language 
hindered the infusion of British emigrants among the people. At 
the breaking out of the revolution the Hollanders in the valley of 
the ]Mohawk extended not many miles above Schenectady, from 
whence uj) to German Flats and Frankfoi-t there were only 
Germans speaking their native tongue. The two peoples in the 
valley were similar in character and habits, and were in mutual 
friendship, but their diidects diftered, and were distinguished as 
low Dutch and high Dutch. They held a region of remarkable 
fertility and beauty on both sides of the river, ani there they cut 
down the woods, made roads and bridy^es, built houses and 



churches, and cultivated their fruitful fields ; and in the winter, 
when sleighing came, they " rode " their wheat to the town on the 
Hudson, now the city of Albany. They were in comfort, and 
were contented. 

But the great struggle of the Revolutionary war, and its 
wonderful success, aroused a spirit of enterprise throughout the 
union, and as soon as j^eace was proclaimed thousands of New 
Englanders were ready to go beyond the existing Mohawk 
paradise, and attack the primeval forest, which, as they had heard, 
covered a broad area of rich soil. Hugh White was the man 
fitted by nature and chosen by providence to take the lead in this 
great enterprise. He was a substantial farmer of Middletown, 
Connecticut, fifty-one years old, with good habits, perfect integrity 
and ample vigor, promptitude, courage and mental force. 

Things were prepared for his hands. One Hugh Wallace had 
held a tract of 6,000 acres by grant from the British provincial 
government, sometimes known as Wallace's patent. It lay in this 
valley, extending from the mouth of the Sadaqueda, at the Pointy 
along up the Mohawk river and back from it on each side, 
including a remarkable combination of interval with higher level 
plains and gently rising hills. The Indian title to this land had 
been lawfully acquired by purchase under the sanction of the 
provincial government, according to the just and honest course of 
dealing with the Indians which always prevailed from the days of 
the first Dutch emigration. Wallace was a merchant in the city 
of New York, and a member of the British governor's council. 
The Americans once "apprehended" him; but after holding him 
prisoner in Connecticut for some time Governor Turnbull released 
him, and he returned to New York and resumed his seat in the 
council. His being a clear case of treason, the New York State 
Legislature, in the midst of the war, on the 22d day of October, 
1779, passed a special act in which his name was included with 
some other like oflfenders. It opens thus : " Whereas, during the 
present unjust and cruel war, waged by the King of Great 
Britain, against this State, and the other United States of America, 
divers persons holding or claiming property within this State, 
have voluntarily been adherent to the said King, his fleets and 
armies, enemies to this State and the said other United States, 
wnth intent to subvert the government and liberties of this State 
and the said other United States, and to bring the same in sub- 
jection, to the crown of Great Britain; and whereas the public 
justice and safety of this State absolutely require, that the most 



■notorious offenders should be immediately hereby convicted and 
attained of the oft'ense aforesaid, in order to work a forfeiture of 
their respective estates, and vest the same in the people of this 
State." It then proceeds to enact that certain persons named, 
among them being this Hugh AVallace, "be, and each of them are 
hereby severally declared to be, ipso facto, convicted and attainted 
of the offense aforesaid; and tliat all and singular tlie estate, both 
real and personal, held or claimed by them, tl)e said persons 
sevei-ally and respectively, whethc r in possession, reversion or 
remainder, witliin tliis State, on the day of the passing of this act, 
shall be, and hereby is declared to be, forfeited to and invested in 
the people of this State." It further enacted that all said persons 
be forever banished from this State, and tliat if any one of them 
should ever be found in this State "he should suffer death without 
benefit of clergy." 

Thus Wallace's j)atent became the property of the State of New 
York by the best title known to the law. 

Shortly afterwards, in the same year, the State, by its Com- 
missioners of Foifeitures, sold this tract of land to Zephaniah 
Piatt, Ezra L'Hommedieu, Melancthon Smith and Hugh White 
jointly, and the property became better known as Sadaqueda 
Patent, thus taking the name of the beautiful stream already- 
mentioned. 

The Indian name of this creek signifies "the stream of smooth 
pebbles," and the savages pronounced it Saghdaguaite. The 
French, wlio first wrote it, in their usual way shortened the name 
into Sauquoite, and pronounced it Sow-quait. The English after- 
wards wrote it and pronounced it Sadaqueda, and so it appears in 
maps and deeds through a long period. More recently the custom 
has been to use the French spelling but to apply to it an English 
pronunciation, and ''^ Sair-quoit''' prevails. 

Piatt, L'Hommedieu, Smith and White divided the land between 
themselves. As Mr. Wliite agreed to be the pioneer and settle on 
the ground, he was justly favored in the division, both as to choice 
of location and as to price, and he wisely chose the eastern part, 
taking in the cre^k and its valleys and plains on both sides from 
the Point up to site of New York Mills, and he also purchased 
other grounds on the west side of his allotment; so that his 
possessions took in the "Green" where we new stand, and a 
valuable part of tlie site of this village and the graceful hills that 
rise on its borders. 

It is now full five score years since Hugh White thus entered 



6 

upon his portion of the land. In the following year, 1785, he- 
brought liither all his family and set up his home. The annual 
spring freshet of 1785 having surrounded the place near the Point, 
where he landed in 1784, he chose a spot on the plain near where 
we now are, and put up a temporary dwelling, which afterwards 
was succeeded by a substantial frame house, sided with boards 
brought from Schenectady. The soil about the house he cleared 
of every tree and shrub, except three mai)le saplings which had 
grown there from wild seed, and as he afterwards used to say,, 
they were then not bigger than his whip stock. These were left 
to grow into shade trees. Their irregular positions and unequal 
distances show they never were planted by the hand of man, but 
they stand there now in nature's order, three remarkable trees, 
with an average diameter of three feet. Although a century has 
made its marks on their trunks and tops, and although they were 
bored for the sap and yielded sugar in many successive years, and 
one of them has lost so much timber that it looks now like a 
crippled giant, trying to stand on his last leg and keep up till the 
coming of this day's rejoicing, yet they are in full leaf to-day and 
retain some remnant of the beauty for which tliousands have 
admired them. The old farm house has been transformed, but 
these three venerable sugar maples stand before us as living 
witnesses of the olden time, (See note A. ) 

Hugh White's house on this plain was built on the Connecticut 
model, which differed widely from that of the Dutch. The 
Dutch house had a long front, with less depth, a chimney at each' 
end rising above the high gable and a rooted piazza along the 
front called by them a " stoop " — a word of theirs which has now 
become American. The Connecticut house had nearly a square form 
and a large chimney stack in the middle. To this day the former 
lingers in the lower valley, and some of the latter remain in 
Whitestown. The two styles distinguishable at a distance, show 
whether a Dutchman or a Yankee Avas the builder. The Tory 
refugees who sailed from New York harbor, in the autumn of 1783, 
were of both the races; and in the valley of Annapolis, in Nova 
Scotia, where King George gave them lands for their consolation 
in adversity, the tourist of to-day may see how tlie two races fol- 
lowed their respective old usages in the style of their dwellings. 

]Mr. White a;ul liis sons proceeded with diligence to cut away 
the forest and convert their possessions into farms. The soil was 
absolutely perfect, yielding *crops in quantity and quality far 
beyond their New England experience. 



In later days botanists found that the native flora between the 
Oriskuny and Sadaqueda creeks was remarkably extensive and in- 
teresting. 

News of White's settelenient in this goodly region was not slow 
in spreading through his native land. Farmers who liad worn out 
plows and hoes among rocks and stones, with scant reward, 
welcomed the thought of a soil freely worked and yielding better 
crops. One of the original brown bread eaters of the east in- 
quired, among other things, whether those wondrous lands bore 
good ryeV and White answered, "I don't know: wheat is good 
enough foi- me." The war had left the country much wasted in 
regard to its material condition, but rich in active men, and a flow 
of emigration soon started hithervvard. The only accessible place 
where good wild land could be found m this State, was west of 
the (Tcrman settlements on the Mohawk, and hence this patent 
was the natural point of pursuit. The Mohawk valley, with its 
navigable river and its roads, formed the only practicable line of 
approach, and thus White's settlement was the very key of the 
position. Hither tliey came, first from Connecticut, next from 
all New England, with some from Long Island and New Jersey, 
followed later by peoi)le of the Old World. Soon there were 
farms, houses, mills, and villages, at attractive points for a 
hundred miles westward. Later came the era of turnpike roads, 
which helped much in the teaming over a soft deep soil. The 
river was used only the more for freighting. The movement went 
on without check or slackening, and the new country became an 
established and permanent reality. 

The Oneida Indians were a friendly people. They came often 
to see what was going o^i in the new settlement and to do a little 
traflic. ^fr. White was always kind and wise in his intercourse 
with them, and [)rompt to decide and act. One of their chiefs after 
a few years' acquaintance craftily put his confidence to a hard 
test. This chief after some })alaver with avowals of his great 
esteem, asked for a loan oC Mr. White's baby granddaughter, pro- 
mising to bring her back in a few days and in the meantime to 
take good care of her. "Take her," said White, "I know .you 
will do as you say." The mother's tears and bursting heart 
resisted in vain. The little one was picked up by the scjuaws, and 
soon was out of sight in the woods. Tliere were long hours by 
day and longer by night while the child's place was empty. But 
at last the chief proudly came again, with a procession of squaws, 
bringing the child, well and happy, bound in a frame like a pap- 



8 

poose and glittering with Indian finery and trinkets. From that 
hour Hugh White was worshiped by the Oneidas. 

Tears afterwards, when Whitesboro was an established and 
beautiful village, and the Oneidas had withdrawn from its vicinity, 
there still was to be seen occasionally a tall, slender Indian march- 
ing down in the middle of the street, followed by his family in 
single file, he bearing no load but a long, fresh, spear shaft which 
he held perpendicularly, his form erect, his step high, his air proud; 
the women in blankets, bearing on their backs large packs held 
by bands across their foreheads, walking bent and parrot-toed; 
the younger ones falling into the file behind. It was charming to 
look upon such a party on its way to the fishing grounds. But 
when the expedition had become wearisome and the fishing was 
over, and the visit to the shore had ended in drunkenness and 
begging, they slank back homeward by twilight or through 
wood ])aths, straggling and shabby. 

Until 1784, the greater part of the State was included in Tryon 
and Schenectady counties and the Hudson river counties, and 
Long Island and Staten Island were the exceptions. But there 
was no actual government or civil organization by towns 
anywhere west of German Flats. In that year the Legislature 
changed the name from Tryon to Montgomery county, by a 
statute passed April 2, 1784, but set up no township government. 
Thus on the first landing at the Point in June, 1784, this patent 
was in the county of Montgomery. Four years afterwards the 
necessity of a regular government for the many and fast growing 
settlements became apparent! The Legislature by an act passed 
March 7, 1788, among other things, created the town of Whites- 
town in the county of Montgomery. This town was laid out on a 
magnificent scale. Its eastern boundary was a straight line cross- 
ing the river a short distance below Genesee street bridge, at a 
log house then standing there, and running thence due north to 
the River St. Lawrence, and also due south to a small stream 
near Pennsylvania and down that stream to the Pennsylvania line. 
All parts of the State lying west of that line were constituted the 
town of Whitestown. It contained more then twelve million acres 
of land, navigable head waters of the Mohawk, the Delaware, the 
Susquehanna and the Ohio, the salt springs of Onondaga, the 
chain of little lakes and Oswego river, the entire valley of the 
Genesee with its upper and lower falls, and also the grand 
cataract of Niagara. Its frontage on great lakes and rivers was 
not short of four hundred miles in length. 



9 

The map now shown is the ordinary map of the State ])ublished 
the j)resent year, 18S4. lied ink has been aihled to show the 
bounds of the town in ] 7H8. It sijoes now into tlie collection of 
the Oneida Historical Society. Within the original limits of 
Wliitestown there are now a dozen cities, our own Utica being 
the eldest and V)y Jar tlie most handsome and attractive; and 
half as many colletics, our <;\vn Hamilton being first and leader; 
and more than a million of inhabitants and untold wealtli. 

The original town did not long retain its vast dimensions. In 
1789 a slice was cut off at the west end to make the county of 
Ontario. In 1792 the towns of Steuben, Westmoreland, Paris, 
Mexico and Peru were set off; but the autonomy of" Wliitestown, 
with its town meeting, justices, clerk and elections, never ceased. 
Utica was set off in 1817, and New Hartford in 1827. The residue 
remains nearly as it was in 1806, when Peleg Gilford made his 
survey and published his map. 

In 1791 Herkimer county was created. It included nearly the 
whole of Montgomery county west of Little Falls, and Whites- 
town was its county seat, in which the first court was held. Ten 
years afterwards Oneida county was created, taking in the greater 
part of Herkimer county. In this instance the name for the new 
county was determined by a little gathering held here. It was a 
Whitesboro man who proposed to depart from the usual custom 
and take the name of the Indian tribe, the original people of the 
region still dwelling around the New England settlements; and 
thus came the smooth and graceful style of Oneida county. This 
good example was followed in other cases. 

Hugh White, the pioneer, was not a seeker of public position. 
He once was a]ipoint'jd justice of the peace; and afterwards the 
governor appointed him one of the judges of the county, and he 
served several ye'ars as such judge, with approbation and honor. 
Age at length inclined him to retirement and quiet. • 

The last summons found him at his post. On the IGth day of 
April, 1812, while those three maple trees were putting forth their 
buds for the season. Judge White, on his own domain, peacefully 
yielded up his breath, in the eightieth year of his age. His, 
venerated widow seventeen years afterwards, at the same season, 
passed away in the eighty-seventh year of her age. 

This village early took the name of Whitesboro. Its broad 
avenue was made by voluntary cessions, enlarging th(? width 
beyond the original four rods of a country road to a full one 
hundred feet, and was early planted with shade trees on each side. 



10 

The first church was reared by "The United Society of Whites- 
town and Utica," on the site of the present brick church. 
Although it was a wooden building, it was well designed by a 
competent amateur architect, divided by columns into nave and 
aisles, with Roman arches, tall windows, a pulpit with sounding 
board above, a music loft, a gi-aceful belfry and a bright tinned 
steeple. The carpenter may have failed in some details, but the 
result was comely, and for a long period it was an attractive 
structure. A sweet bell, added in due time, was rung at six 
o'clock to arouse the sleepers, at noon it called to dinner, and at 
nine in the evening its tongue spoke to all visiting beaux a hint 
for parting. The organization was Presbyterian — the settlers thus 
taking a departure from the Congregationalism of their ancestors. 

Some, perhaps many, who in youth heard the gospel in the old 
church, but afterwards felt the spell of worship in grand cathe- 
drals, still held that handsome wooden church in pleasant memo- 
ries, and sighed when they learned that it was gone. 

The Baptists early hnd a church, and a strong following and 
influence for good. 

Tiie. minister and the schoolmaster early appeared, and exercised 
benign influences. Yet there came a need. for court house and 
jail. The former displayed the union flag while the court was in 
session, and the sheriflT, wearing a cocked hat and girt with a 
sword, followed by constables holding aloft their long black rods, 
marshaled judges, jurors and counsel as they went in procession 
from their quarters to the temple of justice. 

Nor were the lawyers idle. This town furnished to the Court of 
Eri-ors in 1805, the first chancery case in the State on rights in a 
stream of water, as affected by occupation and by unvv^ritten 
agreements betv/een the proprietors of adjacent lands. In ]S09 
this village gave the Supreme Court its first case in the law of 
escapes. The jail liberties here, which v/ere free to imprisoned 
debtors, were so established that a certain sidewalk was within 
the liberties, but a certain roadway was pot. A prisoner, strolling 
on a winter day, found this sidewalk encumbered with a snow 
drift, and he stepped out into the roadway and walked there a few 
rods ; and the sheriff" being sued tor this as an escape, was con- 
demned to pay the creditor tlie whole amount of the judgment, 
being over $5,000, Each of these cases was argued ably by 
Whitestown counsel, was cont-idered by the courts with care and 
fully reported. Many authorities were cited, but all were from 
English authors, or decisions o( English courts. Not a New York 



11 

nor American case or authority was referred to; and jirobably 
because there was none in existence, touching such questions. 

This village early had its weekly newspaper, and was a place of 
much traffic. But the Utica settlement having advatitages in 
position, in that the high ground there reached to the shore of the 
river and always gave a dry landing place, finally outgrew 
AVhitesboro; and yet for a long time this spot was not without its 
merchants who sold both at wholesale and retail, and made ship- 
ments to New York of potash, otter skins, beaver skins, and other 
products of the country. 

When the time came for emigration to regions west of this 
State, the best and almost the only line of travel was by the valley 
of the Mohawk and through AVhitestown. Then could be seen 
passing along this street the emigrant wagon, covered with a high 
canopy of sail-cloth, carrying wife and little ones, and furniture and 
food for the journey ; the father and boys following behind and 
driving a few cows and sheep ; all slowly making their way, the 
canvas marked in large capitals "Ohio." In later years the label 
was " Indiana." This was a frecpient and interesting sight, and it 
is still repeated on some of the plains of the far west, near the 
Rocky mountains, where the white and s]>ectral canvas, seen from 
afar, is called " the sliip of the prairie." 

Things have changed here ; but still the best line for passing 
from the eastern coast of the United States to the western world 
must be through the valley of the Mohawk, and the plains of old 
Whitestown, which line divides the Allegany range as does no 
other between Vermont and Florida. (See note B.) f 

Among the neighbors of Hugh White were many who had 
served in the Revolutionary war, and some who bore arms in 
the earlier war between the English and the French. One, at 
least, was a soldier in a Connecticut regiment of volunteers and 
fought at Louisburg in 1745, — an extraordinary battle, where the 
New England troops landed at the shore without artillery, and 
attacked and carried a strong fort, well supplied with cauiion and 
fully garrisoned ; and there was one who helped in the same 
French wars to make the "Mud bow." Coming up the Mohawk 
in boats, and finding near Sadequada point a long curve in the 
river which swept around and made a circle, they stO])i)ed an hour 
or two and dug with their oars across the little neck and let the 
river tear through the soft earth and make a new channel. Their 
intention was thus to shorten their voyage a whole mile, for their 
convenience in case of being driven back by the enemy. This 



12 

mile of water was soon separated from the river by the deposits 
of the stream, and it remained a curved pool with the name of the 
Mud Bow. 

An early emigrant long afterwards narrated how he first arrived 
here. It was in 1789, and the day of company training; and on 
this green, where the stumps were then burning, Hugh White was 
drilling about 27 men simply uniformed and bearing muskets, and 
his son Daniel C. White, was drilling IV riflemen, who wore hunt- 
ing shirts made of tow cloth with a ravelled fringe. 

Long afterwards, when an emergency of the war of 1812 re- 
quired the whole mass of the militia of this region to proceed to 
the northern frontier, they went forth under a Whitestown general, 
the strongest company being from this town and mustering nearly 
150 men. »The campaign was a weary one. There were long 
marches in the mud, leaky shelter in camp under constant rains, 
and not much fighting to be done. The bayonets always think. 
When the men concluded that they had served long enough, and 
had done their duty, and it would be of no use to stay any longer, 
there began a dispersion, some going home singly, and then some 
in small parties, and in one case a captain deliberately marching 
ofi" his company in a body. The battalions were depleted ; but the 
Whitestown company held on and finally constituted a majority 
of the regiment to which it belonged. 

The war being ended, the court martial began to deal with the 
alleged deserters, and for some fifteen months went on with trials, 
when it was suddenly discovered that there was a fatal defect in 
the constitution or organization of the tribunal, and the court, not 
having yet pronounced any judgment, gracefully dissolved, and 
no officer or man was condemned. 

Years after, on a general training day of the 134th regiment 
held here, at the noon resting time, there was a debate as to the 
chances of a shower in the afternoon, when some one asked the 
oracular major for his opinion on that point. Without looking at 
the clouds he promptly responded with ringing voice : " It never , 
-rains anything but blessings on the old hundred and thirty-fourth. 'f\ 
■ — Some are here now who remember a day during the war of 
1812, when a large body of British troops in red coats were 
marched as prisoners through this street, on the way to the sea- 
board for exchange; and also the illumination at the peace of 
1815, when the windows of the village glared with lighted candles. 

The rule of the road, "Turn out to the right," is as firmly fixed 
in the popular mind as if it came down with the old common law. 



18 

But the regulation in Engrland was, and is, to turn out to the left. 
In this State there was no old or established law or custom in that 
regard. The roads were generally narrow and bad, and the be- 
havior of drivers depended mainly on their characters. When the 
i-oads along the ]N[ohawk and to the west became much used the 
trouble of meetmg and passing became serious. There arose 
debates and fights between teamsters. The highway became both 
a necessity and a terror. Thereupon the legislature in 1801, recog- 
nizing that the loads going towards tide water usually were far 
the heaviest, passed a statute requiring that on the roads Icadino- 
from Schenectady up the Mohawk and on to Canandaigua, all 
teams going west should give the road to teams going east. This 
worked some gooJ, but after a little practice, any teamster who 
was tugging west with a full lading of imjDorted goods, found it 
not easy to see the ])ropriety of yielding the whole road when he 
met a wagon bearing only man, wife and baby, or an empty ox 
cart. Hence arose collisions, law suits and lasting quarrels. At 
length the legislature interposed again, and by a general law 
passed in 1813, required that on all public roads in every part of 
the State, when teams met, " each must seasonably turn to the right 
of the center of the road." Such is the law now, and this sensible 
rule has spread through the United States. In this instance, the 
law was actually founded on reason. 

In 1802 a clergyman from New England, traveling in this 
region, sent home his journal. He speaks of passing through this 
place, and adds : " It would appear to you, my friend, on hearing 
the relation of events in the western country, that the whole was 
a fable, and if you were placed in Whitestown," * * * "^,^(1 
saw the progress of improvement, you would believe it enchanted 
ground." He also wrote : " The original Whitestown appears to 
be the garden of the world." He also sent home a map of this 
village, made by himself, on which some buildings now standing 
may be recognized. 

A distinguished emigrant from Long Island, who settled some 
distance hence, used to say that if ever there was a garden of Eden 
it must have been here. 

This name of Whitestown clung to the whole region from here 
to Lake Erie and Ontario for a long time. As late as 1827 a cele- 
brated lecturer on geography used to say that the eastern and 
southern parts of New York, like his own New England, had a 
poor soil, except in a few valleys, but that when you came to " the 
Whitestown country," there was a vast area of greatest fertility. 



14 

In sight of the beautiful farms now around us, it is best not to 
forget the time when the great stumps of the forest held out and 
were a tiresome disfigurement of the landscape, and it was a rare 
and pleasing thing to look on a ten acre lot which was perfectly 
free of them. 

They who first broke the forest liere were not paupers, but for 
the most part were men of small means, large courage, industry 
and hope. The story of many was briefly hinted by one of their 
natural orators, in the westerly parts of Oneida county, on his 
addressing a jury of his nieighbors, and appealing for their confi- 
dence. His defense was opened thus: "Gentlemen of the jury, 
Twenty-fiv-e years ago I came across Fish creek with my axe on my 
shoulder and forty dollars in my pocket, and went to work in the 
woods. I have grown with your growth and strengthened with 
your strength. Now how is it? You know my house and my 
farm and my stock, and you don't know a man to whom 1 owe a 
dollar. I am one of yourselves, and can have no object in de- 
ceiving you ; and I swear to you, gentlemen, that my client here, 
Jeemes Smith, is an honest man ; and an honest man is the noblest 
work of God." 

Pioneer life did have its liardships, and many a toiling man and 
woman came to the bent figure and trembling hand of old age 
before passing threescore years. But their children, born and 
bred on the spot, were erect and robust. 

There were times when meat was lacking. Once, after such a 
period of want, there came immense numbers of wild pigeons, 
furnishing both abundance and luxury for several weeks. It was 
then deemed prudent to preserve pigeons' breasts by packing them 
in salt, in view to another scarcity. This was done, and when the 
famine of meat came again, the stock of cured provisions was 
broached ; but it was found that the salt had struck in quite too 
well ; and one who messed with Judge White in those days, after- 
wards said that in spite of soaking and extra boiling, the article 
was much more salt than pigeon. 

This village on the other hand gave to the country the most 
beautiful, fragrant and delicious of fall pippins ; the widely known 
Lowell a])ple. The original seedling tree stood for some seventy 
years in a garden at this village, and bore fruit in its old age. Its 
stump remains in situ under a beautiful green house, its fitting 
shelter and monument. The river also contributed an occasional 
luxury, yielding to fisherman the Mohawk pike, celebrated for its 
delicious quality. 



15 

Among the people here from the first there never was a time 
when Yale and Harvard were not represented, and every genera- 
tion has furnished its full quota of professional men as well as 
farmers, merchants, mechanics, engineers, manufacturers and 
bankers. DeWitt Clinton, in his " Letters of Ilibernicus," said 
of one of the early settlers from the old world, that he was "■ the 
most learned man in America." 

In this connection lot it not be forgotten that a part of Whites- 
town, now in New Hartford, was owned jointly by George Wash- 
ington and George Clinton. One of the deeds, on the sale of 
part of that ])roperty, signed by them both, and acknowledged 
before James Kent in 1796, is preserved in the collections of the 
New York Historical Society. 

It is not the purpose of this discourse to display the names of 
those who have held public position and won renown by genius or 
attainments. This has been done well by others, and can be done 
again, tor the theme is not half exhausted. The transformation of 
the Whitestown country of 1784 into that of 1884 has been 
wrought mainly by toil and labor. The forest trees fell before the 
blows of axes wielded by hard hands. The roads were made, the 
houses, barns and fences w^ere built, and the Iruit trees Avere 
])lanted mostly by a host of plain men, abounding in strength and 
will. It was a long work and more than one generation shared it. 
Tlie result is a vast cultivated region full of life's comforts, possess- 
ing all the material requirements for education, religion, society, 
refinement and happiness. Without now listing the fortunate few 
who received the decorations of distinction, it is fair to think 
deeply of the rank and file who did the work of these hundred 
years, and standing near the dust of these true toilers, to feel that 
the world was not made for Cicsar. 

It seems not long ago when the Union demanded soldiers, and 
young men of this region with rifle in hand followed the flag 
tlirough march and battle, not loving their lives, even unto death, for 
tlie good cause. It waS' a proud day for the sons of Oneida 
county, when in 18G1 its first quota of volunteers passed through 
the city of New York, and bearing a flag there presented 
to tliera by emigrants from this county, marched to the 
front ; and it was a sad but yet proud day when the fourteenth 
regiment passed the same ])lace again on its return from many- 
battles, bearing the same flag, the ranks thinned by losses, but 
covered with honor. 

The dead of tliat mortal struggle for national existence, popular 
government amJ liberty, piously brought home and laid in the 




earth by the side of their Ma^iers, gajife/to every burying ground 
in the land a new and holy cbBSgci-i 

There is no prophet now who can lift up his voice and tell what 
will be here when another century has passed and we all have 
turned to dust : no seer whose eyes can pierce through the long 
vista and descry the scenes beyond. 

May the Mighty and Loving Father who made this land of 
fertility and abundance, and in the fullness of time called our pro- 
o-enitors into its possession, abide with their descendants and 
successors to all generations. 



Note A. — The appropriate inscription placed on Judge White's monument 
about sixty years ago was drawn up by a young man. In liis draft there was a 
glowing passage about " making the desert to blossom as the rose," but his 
senior, who had been here from the early days, struck out that passage as 
smacking of fiction, and remarked, "the Judge would not allow so much as 
a rosebush about his house." The three sugar maple trees were the only 
exception to the destruction he waged upon all wild growth of tree or bush. 
Nor was this strange. The necessary fight against forest and thicket inspired 
a hostile sentiment which made it a joy to wield the axe against the common 
enemy. Those who tried to save here and there a grand old tree, for its 
beauty or its useful shadow, usually were disappointed. The shallow roots 
of a tree full grown in the dense woods proved insufficient to sustain it when 
standing alone, deprived of the clinging net work of forest roots, and ex- 
posed to the winds which swept across the open clearing. Young trees, left 
or planted in open fields, and there passing their youth, adapted themselves 
to circumstances, and with grapplings deeper sunk in the earth and forms 
less lofty and more robust, braved the storm and flourished. Much of the 
ornamentation of the country was due to rude and unsightly fences, in the 
corners of which a young tree might escape the plow and the scythe, and on 
many an old farm we now can trace by a few surviving trees the line of a 
former log or worm fence, which rotted away long ago, leaving no trace, and 
better farming gave it no successor, but abandoned the line and united the 
fields. The landscape is thus beautified by chance, and its beauty not only 
excites the pride of owners, but improves the taste of the people. 

Note B. — The Alleganies form a continuous mountain chain, bounding on 
the west the whole Atlantic slope, except the one opening through by the Hud- 
son and the Mohawk. The valleys of these two streams form a notch or clove 
reaching from the ocean level to the western slope, always affording a con- 
tinuous water passage, the usefulness of which led to the great enterprise of 
building the Erie Canal. Everywhere else the valleys of rivers, when fol- 
lowed up, were found to end beneath high mountain laud. All plans and 
efforts for canalling through to the west, by the river lines of Pennsylvania 
and of Virginia, and further south, totally failed. Nature had given to 
New York alone the power to open the west. In later days the railroads 
have climbed over or pierced through the high divide ; but the line of the 
Hudson and the Mohav/k must forever be easier of grade andjuore available 
than any other for railroad operations. 



LIBRARY OF CONGRESS ^J^ 




